Traditional drivers of data classification from a storage point of view have been to improve efficiencies, map data and device characteristics and better serve application users. More than ever, with compliance, legal discovery and audit initiatives influencing corporate agendas a new value proposition is emerging where classification can enable the reconstruction of a continuum of organizational activities performed and decisions made over a period of time.

What this means is that the traditional reliance on a 'corporate memory' to piece together a series of events, or conduct a cumbersome discovery has the potential to be supplanted by a much more reliable and auditable system of infrastructure, meta-data, applications and business processes. To be sure, the justification, internal arm-twisting and development of this capability will not be trivial; however the technologies, regulatory imperatives and competitive pressures are coming together in a sort of perfect storm scenario that will dictate investment in this area for the next several years. At the heart of this opportunity is the automatic creation of classification meta-data and the enticement of users to provide meaningful input into the process.

Action Item: IT must sell the vision of how enabling automation of classification meta-data will drive huge improvements in productivity, reduce risks and facilitate the exploitation of untapped corporate knowledge. Application owners must be persuaded to develop meta-data classification function at the point of creation or use. Finally, meta-data creation can be complemented with user-generated tagging methodologies (e.g. Digg) to facilitate end users participation and add incremental value.